Musical Chairs
by hello heartbreak
Summary: The characters of Fruits Basket, revealing their deepest thoughts and emotions. Chapter 2: Sohma Momiji and his unrequited love.
1. Prelude

_Author's notes: This is the first chapter of Musical Chairs, a Fruits Basket fic. Each chapter will be in the POV of a different character. This chapter is in the POV of Sohma Yuki. Mild spoilers scattered in different areas._

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**Prelude. **

_Sohma Yuki._

He is the rat.

The smart one.

The sly one.

The admired one.

The ostracized one.

Sohma Yuki, he has never liked his life.

He has never loved. He has never _been_ loved.

He is afraid. He is afraid of getting too close. He is afraid of loneliness.

-

Until she came. That klutz of a girl, with her straight brown hair and high voice. She is pained, like him. But she is not afraid.

She gives the ones around her strength to live too.

He sees the glances that baka neko casts upon her.

He doesn't want to see the similar expression she wears on her face when she replies him with that smile. The smile that is especially reserved for that orange-head. Sure, she smiles at him too. But never in the same way.

-

All his life, he has never made any long-lasting friends. After all, they throw him away like a toy they'd gotten sick of once they learnt _what_ he truly is.

"Hatori, please don't do it…" Yuki would beg the older male, clutching to his shirt with his tiny, pale hands.

But the result would always be the same, no matter what he did. Hatori would push him away gently and leave him crying in the dark. He doesn't want to, but all these years, he's been holding a silent grudge against the quiet man for taking away his "friends".

He is ridden with guilt.

-

"If my memory ever gets erased… Please be my friend again!"

She said it so earnestly. Yuki had been trained since young to read between the lines and this statement took him aback. He didn't know such purity and innocence existed in the cold, hard world he had grown up in.

He has found light in the darkness he was drowning in. But he's lost it to a stupid cat.

-

"I realize that she is just a motherly figure to me," he confesses one day, to a highly unlikely listener.

Manabe Kakeru shifts about with indifference.

"Aww, don't cry, Hime," he says, grinning his usual stupid grin. Yuki sends a soccer ball into his stomach subsequently.

He's met with a revelation. His wrenched up heart seems to have untangled somehow. He feels… _lighter._

Whoosh, and here comes another revelation. Good things seem to come in pairs. He's made friends. True friends, and all on his own. For the first time, he is smiling properly.

-

And then there's another problem. He can't seem to leave that girl alone.

"Kaicho isn't like a prince at all," she says in her monotonous voice. That's a first. Perhaps that's the only reason why he can't leave her alone. Or perhaps it isn't.

"Machi… You don't like structure, do you?"

Now he's even found out her problem.

She looks at him with the same emotionless eyes. No, wait. There is a flicker of emotion. And then her eyes are flooded with tears as she opens her heart out to him.

-

In the next student council meeting, Yuki reaches for a piece of chalk in the chalk box. Machi is trying her best not to fling the chalk all over the room. They're white, and arranged in a perfectly neat structure. She looks away in desperation.

"Crack."

He breaks the chalk into two. Her eyes widen. No verbal communication is exchanged. But Machi knows that actions speak louder than words.

-

Sohma Yuki has reached the shore at last. He sees light. She's still out there, struggling in the dark waters.

And he's going to save her.

"Let's go out and step on the snowy roads together next time," he says to an astonished Machi.

_end._

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_To readers: I hope you liked that! This chapter took quite a long time to write because plotbunnies kept refusing to hop into my head. :D I'm trying to do the chapters according to the zodiac but that'll probably be messed up sooner or later. Please review!_


	2. Scherzo

_Author's Notes: I haven't been updating for like, **forever.** Contains spoilers up to pretty recent chapters. And oh yes, Furuba is not mine. _

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**Scherzo.  
**_Sohma Momiji._

Everyone thinks that Momiji is a happy child because he is always smiling and hopping about like a rabbit, and singing his strange songs. They also think that he is a little queer, because he likes to dress like a girl, and it doesn't help that his facial features are rather feminine and his voice hasn't broken yet.

They compare him to Hatsuharu and wonder why the two Sohmas are so different in height, in character, in everything. They are confused by him, and therefore they keep away from him, because he is unnaturally hyper, but unnaturally distant at times.

They also know vaguely, that his real mother and sister don't know of his existence, or perhaps they just do not want to know. This drives everyone further away, because the human instinct of keeping away from unknown things causes them to do so.

-

But Momiji continues smiling, hopping around like a rabbit, singing his strange songs, and dressing like a girl. This is way of warning others to keep at bay, because he views himself as an oddball, a tainted one who doesn't deserve the care of others.

-

Then, he meets Honda Tohru, and figures she'll be the one who'll probably break their curses, one by one. He likes her, and she likes him too. They are of the same kind – taking sins upon themselves and being weighed down by tremendous guilt, but smiling throughout the whole process because they don't want to cause anymore trouble to anyone else. He tells himself that he's finally found a true friend, one who can understand him through and through.

She's one of the few who knows he can play the violin very well, and the reason behind his cross dressing, and his fear of Akito and hurting others. She's one of the few who can actually heal his wounds just by being there for him. She's also one of the extreme few who can hug him without him twitching just a little bit in discomfort. Poof, he turns into a yellow rabbit. But he is smiling, genuinely, in the arms of Honda Tohru.

-

What he doesn't expect, is for himself to start seeing this Tohru in a very different way indeed.

-

It is known, among the Sohmas, that the kind brown-haired girl, who has been unfortunately bound into their fates, has a special kind of affection for the outcast of the Juunishi. He, they believe strongly, reciprocates that special kind of affection. Or, perhaps, he wants to, but feels that he cannot, in case he hurts her too. But that is another story, which will be uncovered when the music plays once again, and the game of musical chairs continues, with one less player.

Momiji is well aware that Tohru is in love with Kyou, and wants to break his curse the most out of the thirteen of them, because humans, no matter how selfless they are, will still have to be self-centered, to a certain extent. This, in the case of Tohru, is a very small extent, but still a significant small extent. He cannot help but feel the pangs of pain in his small heart when he sees her glance at the orange-head, and the glances she receives back from him. Perhaps Yuki can empathize. But lately, the rat seems to have let go, and seems to be happy about it, as Momiji can tell from his speech, and his posture.

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And so, the rabbit is left alone, once again.

-

Then one day, he seems much taller than before, wearing the boys' uniform. _Is that Momiji?_ many ask in astonishment. He hears the question and turns, smiling and waving. _Yes_, they are definite. It is still the rabbit-y soul within. What they don't know is that the yellow rabbit is gone, forever, never to appear again if he was hugged by someone of the opposite sex.

Momiji meets Tohru and they make a lot of noise, as usual, clapping in delight. Then he sees the awkward sidelong glances she shares with Kyou, and frowns just a little but reprimands himself for it later. He is freed of the curse, but unhappy. Tohru would've been happier if Kyou had been the one.

-

Now he truly feels that he is alone. The cursed ones had been a special group of people, a group that he had belonged to, however terrible the experience had been.

-

It sure beats being left out there in the dark, without a single soul to cling to.

_end. _

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_To readers: Ah, the Momiji angst. It's a pity we won't get to see the cute yellow rabbit anymore. Please pat the poor boy and give him some love by reviewing his chapter. Thankies. _


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